


a thousand islands in the sea

by oryx



Category: Kamen Rider 555
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 20:37:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3991954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryx/pseuds/oryx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's spent his entire life thinking of someone he's never met.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a thousand islands in the sea

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this](http://themaximovs.tumblr.com/post/115638999945/soulmate-au-where-instead-of-your-soulmates-first) because there's nothing i love more than making myself even sadder

He’s always thought they were strange, as far as Last Words go.  
   
_I’ll give you our answer. With our power._  
   
The Words of those around him are so very mundane by comparison. The inside of his mother’s wrist says “Are you jealous?” His father’s simply says “Of course not.” Out for drinks with his friends, Yuuji glances around the table and sees Words like “Good night,” “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday,” “Is there nothing else I can do for you?”  
   
He meets a girl named Chie whose smile makes him feel like his heart is doing backflips, and he wonders if he’s finally found them. The one with the question to go along with his answer. But one night in private she reveals that both of her wrists are blank – something she’s always been self-conscious about.  
   
“I know there are other people like me,” she says, trailing a thumb across the bare skin. “But it still hurts, you know? Does it mean I’ll never find someone? Or what if… what if I don’t…” She trails off, biting her lip, shaking her head like she’s trying to get rid of unpleasant thoughts. Yuuji puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, tells her it’ll be alright, all the while thinking that they must still be out there somewhere. The person he’s meant to love.  
   
The person with the other half of the conversation.  
   
  
   
  
   
The doctor tells him he died.  
   
His uncle says he should’ve stayed dead.  
   
But that can’t be right, Yuuji thinks. Your Words are supposed to vanish when you die. But his are still there on his wrist, still staring up at him accusingly, those precise little characters setting him on edge more than they ever did before.  
   
_At the very least_ , he thinks, as he stands in the rain in the glaring headlights of that man’s car and lets his sadness burn away into rage. As he curls his fingers – new, different, the colour of ash – into that man’s collar and lifts him with ease, points his sword directly at his heart and –  
   
At least now he understands what this so-called “power” might be.  
   
  
   
  
   
His mother used to tell him:  
   
“If two people are fated to be together, they’ll know it.”  
   
He didn’t really get it back then. But now, as he hides behind a tree with some guy whose name he’s only just learned, he thinks he might be starting to understand.  
   
He can’t seem to stop crossing paths with this person. This Inui Takumi. (He turns that name over and over in his mind, and there’s something oddly comforting about it, its edges soft despite the prickliness of the person it belongs to. Something about that name feels like home.) It can’t be coincidence, can it? To always be in the same places at the same times, always encountering one another in the most unlikely of circumstances.  
   
Out of all the cars Inui could’ve tried to steal (though Yuuji is starting to doubt the truth behind that story), it had to be his. Out of all the places he could’ve gone that day to let off steam, it had to be the batting cages (he hardly even likes baseball).  
   
And out of all the part-time jobs they both could’ve landed in, it just had to be this one.  
   
They decide to split up, luring their attackers in opposite directions, and when they turn back to grin at each other Yuuji thinks that this feels right.  
   
  
   
  
   
Weeks later, dropping off his laundry at the cleaner’s, he happens to see the Words on Inui’s wrist.  
   
_What is right? I would like you to tell me the answer._  
   
Yuuji reads them again and again, piecing them together syllable-by-syllable in his mind, taking a sharp, ragged breath as they finally start to sink in. Inui notices him staring; goes to pull his arm back, looking decidedly uncomfortable, but Yuuji catches him by the hand without thinking.  
   
“You,” he says. “You’re…”  
   
His hands are shaking a bit as he rolls up his sleeve and holds out his wrist. It’s only natural to be this nervous, isn’t it? His entire life he’s been thinking of someone he’s never met, wondering about the sound of their laugh and the colours of their eyes, wondering what kind of life the two of them could possibly lead, if it all ends with Words like these.  
   
Inui’s face is somewhat paler than usual, eyes wide and startled as he stares at Yuuji’s wrist. He’s clearly been searching, too, even if he might not want to admit it. Looking desperately for the answer to go along with his question.  
   
“That’s – ” he starts to say, and swallows visibly, shaking his head. “Are you serious with this? Not like there’s any guarantee they’re a match.”  
   
Yuuji laughs, then, weak and breathless and _relieved_.  
   
“Maybe not,” he says. “But I know they are.”  
   
  
   
  
   
“If I’m being honest,” Inui says. “When I was younger, I really disliked this person.”  
   
He’s frowning down at his wrist, the tip of his finger tracing the edges of his Words – a nervous habit that Yuuji has, too.  
   
“I thought it was unfair,” Inui continues. “That they would ask me ‘what is right?’ and expect an answer. I mean, how the hell was I supposed to know? _What is right?_ … I can’t even answer that for myself.” His scowl deepens, and now there are red marks on his arm from where his nails are digging into the skin. “It felt like they were placing some weird expectations on me. I hated it. I hated _them_.  
   
“And,” he says, quieter now. “It always gave me a bad feeling. That these are the last words they say to me.”  
   
Yuuji nods slowly. “I always wondered what could’ve happened. For this to be…” He doesn’t want to say it – The End – but Inui seems to get his meaning anyhow. “There’s something about it that almost seems like… a battle’s about to start. But what sense does that make? What would we even be fighting? And why?”  
   
“I don’t know,” Inui says softly.  
   
Yuuji forces a smile, then; leans in to nudge him gently with his elbow. “You’re not keeping some kind of secret from me, are you?” he asks with a laugh.  
   
Inui turns to blink at him before hastily averting his eyes. “No,” he says. He crosses his arms and then uncrosses them like he’s not quite sure what to do with himself. “What about you? D’you have some kind of secret?”  
   
“No,” Yuuji says, maybe a little too fast. “No, not really.” It sounds unconvincing even to his own ears. Lying has never been one of his strong suits, and when face to face with Inui it seems to get even more difficult. Sometimes when Inui looks at him there’s a kind of hesitant hopefulness there, and it hurts to think of all the things he doesn’t know. Yuuji wonders how the two of them are meant to work. Surely any human would be horrified upon finding out the truth. Is he meant to keep this secret until the very end? Is _that_ why things end they way they do?  
   
“You know I read online,” he says, to distract himself from his own thoughts, “that it’s possible to change your Words. Not likely, but… possible. Something about ‘focusing on a different future.’” He turns to meet Inui’s questioning look. “And the more I think about it, the more I'm worried about what our future means. Let’s… promise each other, alright? That we’ll do anything we can to stop this,” and here he reaches out to touch Inui’s wrist, “from happening.”  
   
Inui’s pulse is quick beneath Yuuji’s fingertips as he nods and says: “I will.”  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
He’s gone through half his morning routine before he notices it. He reaches for something in the cupboard and he happens to glance sidelong at his wrist, only to find that his Words are suddenly, inexplicably different. Shorter now, just a single, simple sentence where once there were two.  
   
_I don’t want you to change._


End file.
